30 April 2005

After waiting for one week to get my free Linksys Wireless-G router and a Wireless-G USB Adapter from the StarHub promo, I finally got to install it and I am now using my own WiFi. No more freeloading from my neighbors'(thanks a lot!) this one is my very own Unlimited Broadband Wireless Internet. I can now blog from the privacy of my room, my toilet, wherever within 500 meters. Although, I don't really need the USB Wireless-G Adapter for now, but in the future when I buy my own PC it will be very useful. When I get back to Philippines for vacation, I am going to install one at home too. Sorry, but some hackers can't freeload from me, I just enabled MAC address filtering so only my laptop and my USB Wireless Adapter is visible to my router.

22 April 2005

Why integrate your services(SOA) when you can put them into the space? Why make your architecture protocol-dependent when it can be protocol-agnostic? Why integrate services(ESB) that you are not interested in instead of just taking what you really need or giving what the users need? Why make access control complicated when you can just build context-based spaces with relevant services instead? Get the drift? Isn't the time is ripe for the space-oriented architecture?

19 April 2005

Sounds cool right? Advaaaaaaannced Queue. Alright, let's cut to the chase. Being used to the open source tools, one can develop a high-level of tolerance on poorly documented systems, that's forgiveable because all those involved in the project might be paid little or none at all. But what if some very exorbitantly priced software does not seem to work according to specifications and examples the way they suppose to be? To people who has been programming with JMS the drill is the same no matter what vendor is providing the MQ. It usually goes this way:

- Obtain ConnectionFactory usually from JNDI- Obtain Connection from ConnectionFactory- Obtain Topic or Queue from JNDI- Obtain Session from Connection- Create consumer/listener or producer objects from Session.- Send or receive/listen a message.

But Oracle Advaaaaaaanced Queue has broken all that. I think it's advanced but not necessarily asynchronous hahaha. If a MessageListener has been registered to a Receiver or Session object, the only time it can receive message is when the JMS client is run the first time then it will go to Deaf Mode so new messages are mysteriously ignored. So what do Oracle zealots will tell me? Read the Fucking Manual? Fuck them! I don't think we bought this crap to do that or to register at Oracle Technoshit Network and mingle with the DBAs. So what's a workaround? One, do a recursive receive() calls, pretend that you are in a listening mode, near real time. But of course it's quite stupid.

14 April 2005

When you're braindead, what can you think of? Of course nothing. Because you're braindead. So tonight I'll be attempting to jumpstart my brain by starting to blog about not-so-tech stuff and when I got into the more technical subject that's when I am going to stop writing this post.

Let's talk about the pilots of Bus #7, I will not call them drivers because that's too degrading for the way they handle their babies. These pilots got an interesting route from Orchard to Bedok Interchange. Every morning, I board at one of this jets at Guillemard and I will alight at Technopark@ChaiChee because that's where I work. Going home is almost the same thing. By Philippine standards I think these pilots' rigs are cool, with high-tech ticketing system and automatic fare updating via proximity cards, two flat screen TVs for a single decker and four on a double-decker. From full stop everything is fine, but when you started to roll, that's a different story hehehe. I guess these pilots knows only two kinds of traffic lights; green and red. Green means slamming the gas and Red means slamming the brakes. The effect of that would be simple especially if you're sitting in a seat with a tight leg room, but If you're standing and worse, when you're going down the stairwell in a double-decker get ready to roll with your ez-link card in hand because uncle will going to eject you on the next bus stop. Another thing, since those buses are normally on an automatic transmission it contributes to the "roughness" of ride because the heavier the vehicle, the sluggish the shifting gets. Heavy vehicles that has automatic transmission usually has crews wearing a helmet, jumpsuit and a sidearm. Unlike in the Philippines where drivers got only manual transmission and smooth rides depends on his "muscle control" so the younger the driver the rougher the ride :))

Of Mouthwash and Fishes

The other night I ran out of mouthwash and I need to buy one but the rain is quite heavy, I ask my housemates where would be the nearest convenience store aside from 7-11 or Esso's. They told me to walk the direction to City Plaza from Geylang and I might find some good stores along the way. I waited for the rain to stop and went outside, I thought going to City Plaza direction is boring idea. So I took a westward route going to Aljunied, and yeah baby all the interesting stuff are there! I only need to buy a mouthwash so why not get some free eye-catchers. And lo and behold it's like "Nicoles" and "Gwen Garcis" have been instantiated from an ObjectFactory!! Woohoo! Even if it is the longer route than the suggested one it was never boring :))

The Cash Converter

This is the manisfestation of the saying "You're garbage might be someone's treasure". I went to lunch at Burger King in Bedok and after me and my officemates walk around the community and I saw this shop called "Cash Converter", They buy your unwanted stuff in cash instantly! Nice business idea. So if you have a unused stuff at home and want to earn Singapore dollars. Bring it here yourself.

Dropline Gnome 2.10

Finally I got to download DLG iso, my Slackware installers are now complete. My Slackware will not be complete with DLG as the primary Desktop Management, nothing could be better.

Pitching the Visual Studio .Net to the Eclipse Community

I am planning to have my own version of tomatometer but this not something like Rotten Tomatoes. This is more wicked, 1 tick on my tomatometer means 10 tomatoes to be thrown at whatever(whoever) stupid or silly stuff that I might encounter in the near future. For example, pitching the virtues of VS.Net to Eclipse Community...Uhm...I think I will turnover 1 tick of tomatometer to every Eclipse user for that and let him/her decide how much tomatometer should be put up.

10 April 2005

Perhaps you may notice that I now usually blog every week unlike before that it is almost everyday. There are some valid and invalid reasons for that. Invalid ones includes me being too tired to blog after a day at work, second, too much high-tech environment makes techie dumb(???). The valid ones are of course, this is not Philippines anymore so I have to carefully choose my words. I cannot blog some interesting stuff that I can't discern the difference between work and hobby. But this weekend at least I found some stuff to share. Enjoy!

Tidbit #1:

After the Singaporean authorities have installed street cameras at all even-numbered Lorongs(not including where I live!) along Geylang Rd., By the way, Geylang is like Mabini or Ermita in Manila or Olongapo in Subic during the days of the G.I.s. But I lived at the more "decent" end of Geylang that is near Grandlink Square. Going back to the camera story, the places where "fishes" abounds have deserted those camera-enabled streets, ordinary people don't want to be in those streets for fear that their spouses might misunderstood them. So last night from our window, we saw some group of "fishes" waiting for "fishermen". Now, they're wheeling and dealing right in front of our gate!!! Thanks to those cameras :))

Tidbit #2

I was sleeping last night when I was interrupted by an SMS alert. I ignored it and proceeded to sleep. Upon waking up this morning, it's Warren, I thought he wants to drop by and check out the "fishes" :)) but the message is about Patriot being on the top of the front page of the java.net. Woooohooo! we're celebrities! So I checked the website captured a screenshot. No wonder I am receiving some request-for-observer mails. Nice thing about it, only Nokia is the primary competitor in that area.

Tidbit #3

Solaris 8 sucks, I can't believe 5 years ago a lot of people has been goofed to buying this stuff. Five years ago, Linux has already got some neat features that will put Solaris out of shame. That's it.

07 April 2005

I have heard and criticized discussions on ways how to teach design patterns without getting the audience's eyes droopy. After finishing the first two patterns(Strategy and Observer) from the Head First Design Patterns, I realized this is the way to teach design patterns.

Self-styled software engineering groups should have at least one legal copy of this book. I mean if you're into design patterns, this book should not be missed.

03 April 2005

My whole Saturday afternoon was spent at Funan IT mall, because it's XBox-Blue-Limited-with-Free-Halo2 sale(all for S$329) weekend. So I got to try a lot of games on every available kiosk out there. And I found a favorite, Full Spectrum Warrior. Not your typical FPS game, but I didn't get my own yet. Probably end of this month.

Instead, I went to The Computer Book Centre. Sat on the floor in front of the Software Engineering Section read books summarily making quick judgements between craps and gems and I did found a winner: "Writing Better Requirements". I am too lazy to write ISBN, just comment or mail me for that if interested. The book is simple and straightforward, it intends to help avoid developers and users go into unnecessary miscommunications, best thing is, the book breaks down the causes of software project failures and tabulates the percentage of damage each cause contribute to the overall failure. Of course, writing poor requirements is the root of all evil in every software development projects. Another gem I found is the "J2EE Connector Architecture and Enterprise Application Integration", the only J2EE book that is very specific on its subject and one of its intended audience are from the ISVs, this book is not your typical J2EE book that focuses on a lot of bullcrap. It discusses about the blood and life of every J2EE container and its hosted applications, its low-level intricacies, because it will not be named "Connector" for nothing. Most likely, this book has been collecting dust in the Java Section, and the store's top selling book last week is "Head First Design Patterns". Probably, the two books I've mentioned might draw attention this week. Hey, they should give complimentary copies for that!